Tesla, SpaceX, and SpaceXAI have taken a trademark dispute over the "Terafab" name to federal court, PCMag reports. The declaratory judgment action was filed on September 15 in the US District Court for the Western District of Texas. It asks a judge to rule that Terafab does not infringe the "Tera-Fab" mark of Illinois nanotechnology firm Tera-print, which covers a desktop photolithography system used by researchers. Tera-print sent a cease-and-desist letter on May 23, days after Tesla filed its own Terafab trademark applications on May 18. Six settlement meetings between June and August apparently went nowhere, and Tera-print says it will defend its rights.

Nothing has been decided yet, and the claims are each side's own. Tesla and SpaceX point to a separate Tera-print application filed on May 22 that seeks coverage for semiconductor-related goods, and they call the timing opportunistic. That is their characterization, not a court finding. Tesla and SpaceX also argue the two operate in different product spheres and that confusion is unlikely. Musk announced Terafab in March as a chip factory for AI compute. Intel joined the project in April, though its exact role is unclear. Filings in May pointed to costs up to $119 billion across all phases, and in August the companies confirmed a Grimes County, Texas site with a $16.8 billion first phase.